I have built my own custom gaming computer, which I have done before with success. Right now in my second year of ownership, it has started POWERING down seemingly randomly. I know enough to connect the parts but diagnosing problems is not my forte.

Problem:
Full power down of Computer

Common Themes:
During Gaming, but not consistently, various games too (Team Fortress 2, Counter Strike: Source, Rise of Nations)
I can play a game for 5 mins and it will die, or for several hours without any fault at all. This has been happening on and off for the past 3 months.

I has yet to fail during "normal" computing

Solutions already tried:
New Graphics card -- nVidia 8800 GTX
New PSU -- Rosewill 750W Extreme

Neither of these "obvious" hardware CAUSES are the culprit, so I was wondering if anyone had any other ideas of what could be causing this issue.


OS -- Windows XP SP 2
MOBO -- ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI X16 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
RAM -- CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWINX2048-3200
CPU - AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ Toledo 2.4GHz Socket 939 Dual-Core PROCESSOR Model ADA4800CDBOX - Retail
HD -- Western Digital Caviar RE WD1600YD 160GB 7200 RPM SATA 1.5Gb/s Hard Drive4 most common reasons for shutdowns while gaming in no particular order:
Heat
Bad RAM
HDD issues
Power.

Heat: Direct a small fan onto an open side of the case....if problems go away you have found the culprit.
Look into some additional cooling alternatives.

Bad RAM: DLoad and run MemTest. Let it run a few hours...any errors at all and you have a bad stick of RAM

HDD issues: DLoad and run the FREE diagnostics from the HDD manuf. website....run the extended test. If errors again you have found the culprit.

Power: Borrow a known good PSU of the same or greater wattage and swap it in there...if the issues go away replace the PSU.

Good Luck and Welcome Aboard !Yep RAM ftl .... during the memtest it actually restarts the system after about error 600 :p in Test 6, so it starts all over again.

I realized I should have ran the memtest before posting, thanks for the reply thoughThat Corsair RAM may still be under warranty...Really, purchase date was 8/30/06 ... is it a lifetime warranty?Depends on the model #...Corsair's site should be able to tell you.Just to resolve this issue in case anyone ever finds it.

Yes, Corsair did replace my memory ... though they did take their sweet time with it. On the bright side they are sending me a top of the line replacement. The new RAM has lower latency and lower timings (2-3-3-6) so all in all I give Corsair full marks for supporting their product above and beyond the call of duty. They have made me a Corsair customer for life with this kind of customer and product care.

Thanks Patio for all of your help.Excellent to hear....and since they bit the bullet and did the right THING i'd say Kudos to Corsair as well...